Nazz's scream echoed out through the night again as she stepped backward
from a trio of zombies staggering towards her. She didn't know what was
going on, and whatever these things were weren't messing around. These
things wanted to hurt her. . . or worse. Backed into a corner, Nazz had
little chance for escape as the creatures moved into a semicircle, blocking
any means of escape. She had no means to defend herself, save for her judo
lessons, but she couldn't even remember how to throw a punch, she was so
scared. The dead, lifeless eyes of the zombies sucked every ounce of
courage from the usually very confident girl, and the creatures' horrible
moaning did little to help. The three zombies closed to nearly arm length,
and Nazz let out another scream, fearing her young life was about to come
to an abrupt and rather unpleasant end.
"Open fire!" The voice of Double-D sounded, only a few yards away. Immediately, the sounds of weapons being fired were heard, and the zombie on Nazz's left and in front of her fell, one badly burned and still sparking, and the other filled with crochet needles. "Duck, Nazz!" Double- D shouted. Nazz quickly did as ordered, and Ed opened fire with his golf ball cannon, hitting the remaining zombie in the head so many times, it literally fell off.
"What do I win?!" Ed asked, big grin on his face.
"Ed, this isn't a shooting gallery! Can't your mind remained focused on the present for more than twenty seconds?!" Double-D asked, rhetorically. Ed paused, confused look on his face before replying.
"Nope!"
"Why do you even bother, Double-D?" Eddy asked, frustrated with the both of them.
"Nazz, are you okay?" Edd asked, concerned as Nazz picked herself up from the ground.
"Yeah, I'm fine, dude." She replied, voice shaken. "What's going on?"
"It's kind of hard to explain, Nazz." Double-D replied.
"Evil mutant zombie mind-munchers from mucous mansion!" Ed shouted, a slight tone of fear in his idiotic voice.
"Couldn't have set it better myself, Lumpy." Eddy returned, frowning at his dopey pal. Rolf and Kevin ran up next to the Eds after the coast was deemed clear.
"Jeez, you okay Nazz?" Kevin asked.
"I'm fine, thanks to the Eds." Nazz replied. Upon hearing this, all of the Eds' faces began to blush heavily. "Now what?"
"We find the other kids. No telling what they could be getting into; Jimmy already got bitten by one of those abominations!" The hat-clad Ed replied.
"Jimmy got bitten? I hope he's okay. . ."
******************************
"It was so scary, Sarah. I thought I was going to be eaten alive. . ." Jimmy whined, tears still streaming from his eyes as Sarah soaked a cloth with peroxide. She carefully began to clean the wound, Jimmy crying out with every dab of the cloth.
"Are you sure it wasn't just my stupid brother, Jimmy?"
"No, Sarah. It wasn't Ed. As brutish as Ed is, not even he would do this."
"Jeez, Jimmy. . . There isn't a such thing as a zombie and you know it."
"Then what bit me, Sarah?"
"I still think it was Ed. Wait until he gets home. . . he's gonna get it." Sarah muttered to herself, bandaging up Jimmy's wounded shoulder. "There, that should do it. Come on, let's go play."
"Okay. . ." Jimmy replied, slowly pulling himself together. He and his companion walked out into the dusk; it was beginning to get late and dinner would be served in less than an hour. Ed would definitely get it at the dinner table, Sarah would see to that much.
"Let's go tend to our garden, Jimmy!" Sarah exclaimed, heading toward her flower garden out in front of her house. She picked up her watering can from a nearby table and began watering the flowers, while Jimmy stood next to her, still cradling his injured shoulder. Sarah turned to face Jimmy, who was beginning to look paler than usual. "Gee, Jimmy, are you okay?"
"I don't feel too well, Sarah."
"You're probably still scared from Ed. I'll make sure he pays for this."
"No, Sarah. . . I really don't feel well." Jimmy said, sweat slowly forming on his brow. Sarah moved her hand to Jimmy's forehead, and quickly recoiled it.
"Jimmy, you're running a fever! You should sit down." She said setting him on the ground against the house. "I guess you weren't kidding. Ed's really going to. . ." Sarah grumbled to herself again, almost boiling over. Her rage was short lived, however, cut off by the sound of a loud moan. Sarah pivoted around behind her to see a large and lanky figure hobbling towards them.
"That's him, Sarah! He bit me!" Jimmy pointed out. "Keep him away!"
"ED!" Sarah shouted, marching up to the zombie. "I'm telling mom what you did to Jimmy!" Sarah yelled into the creature's face. The zombie, taken back and its undead mind somewhat confused, looked at her with his dead eyes. "And take that stupid mask off! You're not fooling anyone!" She screamed, grabbing the zombie by the hair and ripping it out by the roots. Dead blood started flowing from the top pores of the creature's head, and Sarah stared at the locks she had pulled out. They were dead, but they were real. Ed really had a good costume going. . .
"Sarah, look out!" Jimmy shouted, pointing at the advancing zombie who tried to grab her. Sarah, being agile, dodged away with ease.
"ED! KNOCK IT OFF!" She shouted at the zombie, and it replied solely with a loud moan. The creature made another grab for her, but she simply stepped away. "ED! YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT!"
"Oh no! Please depraved sibling! Have mercy!" Ed shouted. "Don't tell mom, Sarah!" Sarah's look changed from rage to being puzzled. She looked behind her to see all three of the Eds, holding weapons out.
"Wait a minute. If you're Ed, then, who's that?" She asked, turning back around. Realizing what was happening, she let out a mighty scream of fear.
"Baby sister! Big brother will save you!" Ed exclaimed, raising the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner. He turned the power on and golf balls spewed forth out of the shop vac, pummeling the offending zombie into submission. It fell to the ground, it's shape now completely inanimate.
"Ed, what was that?"
"I can explain, Sarah. It was a zombie!" Ed replied, actually getting something right for once.
"A zombie? Then what you said was true, Jimmy!" She said, turning to her pale friend, who was looking worse for the wear every second. "Jimmy?" She asked, without getting a response.
"Let me look him over." Double-D said, walking over to Jimmy, whose breathing was becoming more labored, and who was sweating vigorously. Double-D slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and removed the boy's blood- stained blue sweatshirt and examined the bandage on his shoulder. "Nice wrapping of the bandage, Sarah." He remarked, slowly removing it. When he fully removed the bandage, he gasped in astonishment. The wound was huge, bigger than a normal human jaw bite, that was for sure. Edd was careful not to touch the wound at all. "Sarah? Did he get bitten by a zombie or a dog?" Edd recalled Rolf speaking of Jimmy being bitten by a zombie, but the wound wasn't consistent.
"He said it was a zombie; he said it was that one." She replied, pointing to it.
"Look at this. The bite mark is too big to be from that zombie, unless. . . Oh no." Double-D gasped. "He must've become infected. . . This is worse than I thought."
"What?! What's going on?" Eddy interjected. "Is the twerp going to be okay?!"
"Eddy, please!" Edd snapped back, recouping to his solemn voice a moment later. "I doubt it." He replied, looking back at Jimmy's bite. The lad's breathing was now heavily labored, and he looked like he was going to lapse into a coma. "Call an ambulance."
Kevin and Nazz raced into Ed's house to get the phone, while Edd continued staring at the boy's wound. Strange how the wound looked as though it grew; what was going on here? Was Jimmy turning into one of those. . . things? Moments later, Kevin and Nazz returned.
"Double-D, the line's dead!" Nazz replied, breathlessly.
"Let's try the other houses. Eddy, go with them, okay? Try to find Jonny too, if you can." Double-D asked.
"Sure, whatever." Eddy grumbled, figuring he'd be the one to do the dirty work; he'd been doing it all day, why stop now? At least he got to protect Nazz. He could care less about Kevin. Jonny 2x4 might need some help, though. Eddy was ready to smack himself; why was he worried about him? He had bigger fish to fry. Eddy led Nazz and Kevin down the street and into his house.
"How is he, Double-D?" Ed asked, moving closer.
"Not good, Ed. If Nazz and Kevin can't get an ambulance. . ." Double-D trailed off.
"You can't let him die, Double-D!" Sarah cried.
"I can't do any more for him! The T-Virus is unheard of! I don't know anything about its properties!"
"Double-D! Use your smartness to drive the demons from Jimmy's brain!" Ed pleaded, not wanting to see the retainer-clad member of the Cal-De-Sac join the ranks of the dead.
"Ed, this isn't like any horror movie you've seen!"
"Please, Double-D! The evil mutant Cyclops will not be denied if you don't exorcise the demons from poor Jimmy!"
"First of all, I'm surprised you even know what the word 'exorcise' means. . ."
"Of course I know, Double-D! Watch!" Ed smiled, as he started doing jumping jacks. "One-two-three-four! Stick it underneath the ground!"
"Ed, please stop it." Double-D sighed at his moronic friend's pun.
"Is there anything at all you can do, Double-D?" Sarah asked, trying to hold back her tears.
"I'm afraid not, Sarah. It's out of my hands." There was a long drawn out silence among them, until finally Kevin, Nazz, and Eddy returned. Kevin was carrying Jonny in his arms; Plank was embraced by the boy while he was asleep.
"The melon head is sleeping; go figure." Kevin sighed. Ed waltzed up and began poking Jonny on the head. His small frame began to stir, and Jonny woke up slowly.
"Hiya, Ed!"
"Hi, Jonny!"
"What's up everyone?"
"Jonny, something bad is going on." Double-D started, explaining everything that had happened.
"Plank says 'Your brain is full of pickled cabbage, Double-D!'"
"Then look over there if you don't believe him!" Eddy shouted at the board pointing it in the direction of the collapsed zombie and the ailing Jimmy.
"Plank says 'You gotta be kidding me!' Well, they ain't kidding you, buddy." Jonny replied to his board friend. "So, what do we do?"
"Did the phones work, Nazz?"
"No, the whole neighborhood's phones are down; we couldn't get a hold of anybody." Nazz replied, solemnly.
"Then I don't think we can do anything more for Jimmy. . ." Double-D whispered, trying to suppress his anguish. It had been his fault Jimmy had gotten bitten; if he had warned everyone instead of making weapons, the little tyke may have been spared his gruesome fate. He could see Sarah, Nazz, Ed, and even Rolf holding back their tears for the poor kid; even Eddy and Kevin seemed upset at the fate of the child. Double-D looked back at Jimmy, who now looked as though he had stopped breathing. He approached carefully and investigated the wound; it was festering now; Jimmy looked like he had either gone into a coma or had passed on, but the wound continued to fester and grow. Suddenly, tentacle like whips flew out of the wound, and Jimmy's small frame began to mutate. Edd jumped back twelve feet, realizing this was not good. He picked up his gauss rifle and aimed it at the transforming child, but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. The others stood stunned and watched as Jimmy's form soon grew into a huge and festering abomination; whatever was left of Jimmy now was gone, save for the retainer, which fell onto the ground after the head string snapped. The creature grew large, and its glowing red eyes turned towards the group and it uttered only one thing:
"Eds. . .!"
"Open fire!" The voice of Double-D sounded, only a few yards away. Immediately, the sounds of weapons being fired were heard, and the zombie on Nazz's left and in front of her fell, one badly burned and still sparking, and the other filled with crochet needles. "Duck, Nazz!" Double- D shouted. Nazz quickly did as ordered, and Ed opened fire with his golf ball cannon, hitting the remaining zombie in the head so many times, it literally fell off.
"What do I win?!" Ed asked, big grin on his face.
"Ed, this isn't a shooting gallery! Can't your mind remained focused on the present for more than twenty seconds?!" Double-D asked, rhetorically. Ed paused, confused look on his face before replying.
"Nope!"
"Why do you even bother, Double-D?" Eddy asked, frustrated with the both of them.
"Nazz, are you okay?" Edd asked, concerned as Nazz picked herself up from the ground.
"Yeah, I'm fine, dude." She replied, voice shaken. "What's going on?"
"It's kind of hard to explain, Nazz." Double-D replied.
"Evil mutant zombie mind-munchers from mucous mansion!" Ed shouted, a slight tone of fear in his idiotic voice.
"Couldn't have set it better myself, Lumpy." Eddy returned, frowning at his dopey pal. Rolf and Kevin ran up next to the Eds after the coast was deemed clear.
"Jeez, you okay Nazz?" Kevin asked.
"I'm fine, thanks to the Eds." Nazz replied. Upon hearing this, all of the Eds' faces began to blush heavily. "Now what?"
"We find the other kids. No telling what they could be getting into; Jimmy already got bitten by one of those abominations!" The hat-clad Ed replied.
"Jimmy got bitten? I hope he's okay. . ."
******************************
"It was so scary, Sarah. I thought I was going to be eaten alive. . ." Jimmy whined, tears still streaming from his eyes as Sarah soaked a cloth with peroxide. She carefully began to clean the wound, Jimmy crying out with every dab of the cloth.
"Are you sure it wasn't just my stupid brother, Jimmy?"
"No, Sarah. It wasn't Ed. As brutish as Ed is, not even he would do this."
"Jeez, Jimmy. . . There isn't a such thing as a zombie and you know it."
"Then what bit me, Sarah?"
"I still think it was Ed. Wait until he gets home. . . he's gonna get it." Sarah muttered to herself, bandaging up Jimmy's wounded shoulder. "There, that should do it. Come on, let's go play."
"Okay. . ." Jimmy replied, slowly pulling himself together. He and his companion walked out into the dusk; it was beginning to get late and dinner would be served in less than an hour. Ed would definitely get it at the dinner table, Sarah would see to that much.
"Let's go tend to our garden, Jimmy!" Sarah exclaimed, heading toward her flower garden out in front of her house. She picked up her watering can from a nearby table and began watering the flowers, while Jimmy stood next to her, still cradling his injured shoulder. Sarah turned to face Jimmy, who was beginning to look paler than usual. "Gee, Jimmy, are you okay?"
"I don't feel too well, Sarah."
"You're probably still scared from Ed. I'll make sure he pays for this."
"No, Sarah. . . I really don't feel well." Jimmy said, sweat slowly forming on his brow. Sarah moved her hand to Jimmy's forehead, and quickly recoiled it.
"Jimmy, you're running a fever! You should sit down." She said setting him on the ground against the house. "I guess you weren't kidding. Ed's really going to. . ." Sarah grumbled to herself again, almost boiling over. Her rage was short lived, however, cut off by the sound of a loud moan. Sarah pivoted around behind her to see a large and lanky figure hobbling towards them.
"That's him, Sarah! He bit me!" Jimmy pointed out. "Keep him away!"
"ED!" Sarah shouted, marching up to the zombie. "I'm telling mom what you did to Jimmy!" Sarah yelled into the creature's face. The zombie, taken back and its undead mind somewhat confused, looked at her with his dead eyes. "And take that stupid mask off! You're not fooling anyone!" She screamed, grabbing the zombie by the hair and ripping it out by the roots. Dead blood started flowing from the top pores of the creature's head, and Sarah stared at the locks she had pulled out. They were dead, but they were real. Ed really had a good costume going. . .
"Sarah, look out!" Jimmy shouted, pointing at the advancing zombie who tried to grab her. Sarah, being agile, dodged away with ease.
"ED! KNOCK IT OFF!" She shouted at the zombie, and it replied solely with a loud moan. The creature made another grab for her, but she simply stepped away. "ED! YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT!"
"Oh no! Please depraved sibling! Have mercy!" Ed shouted. "Don't tell mom, Sarah!" Sarah's look changed from rage to being puzzled. She looked behind her to see all three of the Eds, holding weapons out.
"Wait a minute. If you're Ed, then, who's that?" She asked, turning back around. Realizing what was happening, she let out a mighty scream of fear.
"Baby sister! Big brother will save you!" Ed exclaimed, raising the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner. He turned the power on and golf balls spewed forth out of the shop vac, pummeling the offending zombie into submission. It fell to the ground, it's shape now completely inanimate.
"Ed, what was that?"
"I can explain, Sarah. It was a zombie!" Ed replied, actually getting something right for once.
"A zombie? Then what you said was true, Jimmy!" She said, turning to her pale friend, who was looking worse for the wear every second. "Jimmy?" She asked, without getting a response.
"Let me look him over." Double-D said, walking over to Jimmy, whose breathing was becoming more labored, and who was sweating vigorously. Double-D slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and removed the boy's blood- stained blue sweatshirt and examined the bandage on his shoulder. "Nice wrapping of the bandage, Sarah." He remarked, slowly removing it. When he fully removed the bandage, he gasped in astonishment. The wound was huge, bigger than a normal human jaw bite, that was for sure. Edd was careful not to touch the wound at all. "Sarah? Did he get bitten by a zombie or a dog?" Edd recalled Rolf speaking of Jimmy being bitten by a zombie, but the wound wasn't consistent.
"He said it was a zombie; he said it was that one." She replied, pointing to it.
"Look at this. The bite mark is too big to be from that zombie, unless. . . Oh no." Double-D gasped. "He must've become infected. . . This is worse than I thought."
"What?! What's going on?" Eddy interjected. "Is the twerp going to be okay?!"
"Eddy, please!" Edd snapped back, recouping to his solemn voice a moment later. "I doubt it." He replied, looking back at Jimmy's bite. The lad's breathing was now heavily labored, and he looked like he was going to lapse into a coma. "Call an ambulance."
Kevin and Nazz raced into Ed's house to get the phone, while Edd continued staring at the boy's wound. Strange how the wound looked as though it grew; what was going on here? Was Jimmy turning into one of those. . . things? Moments later, Kevin and Nazz returned.
"Double-D, the line's dead!" Nazz replied, breathlessly.
"Let's try the other houses. Eddy, go with them, okay? Try to find Jonny too, if you can." Double-D asked.
"Sure, whatever." Eddy grumbled, figuring he'd be the one to do the dirty work; he'd been doing it all day, why stop now? At least he got to protect Nazz. He could care less about Kevin. Jonny 2x4 might need some help, though. Eddy was ready to smack himself; why was he worried about him? He had bigger fish to fry. Eddy led Nazz and Kevin down the street and into his house.
"How is he, Double-D?" Ed asked, moving closer.
"Not good, Ed. If Nazz and Kevin can't get an ambulance. . ." Double-D trailed off.
"You can't let him die, Double-D!" Sarah cried.
"I can't do any more for him! The T-Virus is unheard of! I don't know anything about its properties!"
"Double-D! Use your smartness to drive the demons from Jimmy's brain!" Ed pleaded, not wanting to see the retainer-clad member of the Cal-De-Sac join the ranks of the dead.
"Ed, this isn't like any horror movie you've seen!"
"Please, Double-D! The evil mutant Cyclops will not be denied if you don't exorcise the demons from poor Jimmy!"
"First of all, I'm surprised you even know what the word 'exorcise' means. . ."
"Of course I know, Double-D! Watch!" Ed smiled, as he started doing jumping jacks. "One-two-three-four! Stick it underneath the ground!"
"Ed, please stop it." Double-D sighed at his moronic friend's pun.
"Is there anything at all you can do, Double-D?" Sarah asked, trying to hold back her tears.
"I'm afraid not, Sarah. It's out of my hands." There was a long drawn out silence among them, until finally Kevin, Nazz, and Eddy returned. Kevin was carrying Jonny in his arms; Plank was embraced by the boy while he was asleep.
"The melon head is sleeping; go figure." Kevin sighed. Ed waltzed up and began poking Jonny on the head. His small frame began to stir, and Jonny woke up slowly.
"Hiya, Ed!"
"Hi, Jonny!"
"What's up everyone?"
"Jonny, something bad is going on." Double-D started, explaining everything that had happened.
"Plank says 'Your brain is full of pickled cabbage, Double-D!'"
"Then look over there if you don't believe him!" Eddy shouted at the board pointing it in the direction of the collapsed zombie and the ailing Jimmy.
"Plank says 'You gotta be kidding me!' Well, they ain't kidding you, buddy." Jonny replied to his board friend. "So, what do we do?"
"Did the phones work, Nazz?"
"No, the whole neighborhood's phones are down; we couldn't get a hold of anybody." Nazz replied, solemnly.
"Then I don't think we can do anything more for Jimmy. . ." Double-D whispered, trying to suppress his anguish. It had been his fault Jimmy had gotten bitten; if he had warned everyone instead of making weapons, the little tyke may have been spared his gruesome fate. He could see Sarah, Nazz, Ed, and even Rolf holding back their tears for the poor kid; even Eddy and Kevin seemed upset at the fate of the child. Double-D looked back at Jimmy, who now looked as though he had stopped breathing. He approached carefully and investigated the wound; it was festering now; Jimmy looked like he had either gone into a coma or had passed on, but the wound continued to fester and grow. Suddenly, tentacle like whips flew out of the wound, and Jimmy's small frame began to mutate. Edd jumped back twelve feet, realizing this was not good. He picked up his gauss rifle and aimed it at the transforming child, but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. The others stood stunned and watched as Jimmy's form soon grew into a huge and festering abomination; whatever was left of Jimmy now was gone, save for the retainer, which fell onto the ground after the head string snapped. The creature grew large, and its glowing red eyes turned towards the group and it uttered only one thing:
"Eds. . .!"